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Tuesday, 19 April 2005
Baggy Skin
Topic: Baggy Skin
Several people have posted questions recently about loose, baggy skin. Will I have it if I lose a lot of weight? Is there any way to avoid it? Will it ever go away? Will I need plastic surgery to correct it?
My first reaction to these questions is to weigh the disadvantages of baggy skin against the disadvantages of obesity.
Baggy skin:
-- is unattractive,
-- it makes you look older and haggard.
Obesity:
-- can lead to heart disease,
-- hypertension,
-- breast, ovarian, prostate, colon cancer,
-- gallstones,
-- degenerative arthritis,
-- high cholesterol,
-- diabetes (with it’s potential complications of blindness, kidney disease, nerve damage, circulatory problems --sometimes leading to amputation-- and heart disease).
Hmm, let me see, which would I prefer?
But, assuming those who posed the questions aren’t just looking for an excuse not to lose weight, and assuming they’ve decided it’s worth risking baggy skin in order to be healthy, they still may questions about dealing with the sags and bags. Here are the answers
Q: Will I get baggy skin?
A: Maybe. It depends on several things: how much weight you lose, how quickly you lose it, how old you are, whether you’re a smoker, your genetics.
Q: Is there anything I can do to avoid it?
A: Possibly not, but there are things you can do to help minimize it.
-- Lose the weight slowly, to give your skin a chance to keep up,
-- keep well hydrated (another reason to drink your water),
-- don’t forget to eat your 2 teaspoons of healthy oils per day (which helps you to metabolize vitamins A & E),
-- exercise,
-- eat a balanced, varied, and nutritious diet with plenty of veggies, to ensure adequate vitamin and mineral intake (and consider taking a daily multiple vitamin with iron),
-- apply moisturizers.
Q: Will it go away?
A: I hope so! Actually, many people have reported that their loose skin tightened up with time (frequently a year or two), but sometimes not completely.
Tuesday, 6 March 2007 - 1:14 PM PST
Name:
"Kevin"
This isn't an excuse not to lose weight, but there are other, more serious issues which can occur with large amounts of excess skin (e.g. you lose a coupl of hundred pounds or more). Bad rashes and sores, yeast infections, pain and further skin stretching from the weight of your excess skin, sometimes balance issues where center of gravity shifts (causing problems exercising). It's still worth the risk, of course, especially considering the horrible stress on your body of carrying that much extre weight, but it's something people should be aware of.
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